VIOLENCE IN BRAZIL IS 'OUT OF CONTROL'

Drug crimes strike in Rio de Janeiro By Kevin G. Hall Washington Bureau

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - After drug traffickers sprayed university students
with gunfire last week, Rio de Janeiro's top cop made it official: Drug
violence in Rio, he said, is "out of control."

Drug gangs, who used to confine their violence to the slums they live in,
also torched several more public buses last week. They fought pitched
gunbattles in daylight against police along the main thoroughfares linking
the airport to Rio's storied Ipanema and Copacabana beaches.

In recent months, they also have attacked government buildings and shopping
malls.

It adds up to a lot of carnage.

Between May and December last year, the state of Rio de Janeiro posted 4,534
homicides, many drug-related, most in the city of Rio and its slums. That's
about 10 times the murder rate in Chicago, a city roughly the same size.

"The situation has been out of control since last September," Anthony
Garotinho, public security director for the state of Rio, said Wednesday at
a news conference called to announce new police strategies and goals.

Garotinho warned Rio residents to steel themselves for more violence. He
predicted traffickers, taking cues from more traditional terrorists, would
target civilians to punish police and dissuade them from pursuing drugs and
drug gangs.

"No police force in Brazil is prepared to fight this," Garotinho said. He
said the new tactic "must be understood, confronted and defeated."

Two days before, a drug faction from the Morro de Turano slum had fired on
an outdoor cafe on the campus of the nearby Estacio de Sa University.

As terrified students scattered in all directions, nursing student Luciana
Goncalves de Novaes, 19, slumped in a pool of blood. The bullet that ripped
through her jaw left her in a coma.

Police now confirm they had received threats beforehand warning that
civilians would be targeted to avenge the slaying by police of a local
trafficker.

Near nightfall Wednesday, not a single person sat outside the normally
crowded university cafe located about a quarter mile from the Morro de
Turano slum.

"I am petrified to be here now," said Camilla de Souza, 21, a nursing
student who came in for a take-out order. She jumped at the crack of a
distant noise.

Behind the counter, a 25-year-old cashier named Ana said she was afraid to
come to work but needs the paycheck.

"Every day, it gets worse," she said, telling how traffickers routinely
order compliant administrators to close down the university and send
students home.

Rio's drug gangs drew world headlines in February when their threat to
disrupt Carnaval week activities prompted the Brazilian government to order
military patrols of city streets.

During elections last year, soldiers patrolled some of Rio's most violent
slums to ensure order.

Last week, Brazil's generals made it known that, if asked by state
officials, they are willing to send soldiers back onto Rio streets again.